The Trump Agenda
The following is the Trump Agenda as collected by the Internet Wayback Machine on November 8, 2016, Election Day. The reason for selecting this date is because it represents the finality of all promises to the American public on voting day. In the transition some of these were changed and altered as to present a more "Presidential" narrative and to provide a basis for "alternative-facts" regarding what the President has said. We should ensure that we do not forget his real positons: Infrastructure * Transform America’s crumbling infrastructure into a golden opportunity for accelerated economic growth and more rapid productivity gains with a deficit-neutral plan targeting substantial new infrastructure investments. * Pursue an “America’s Infrastructure First” policy that supports investments in transportation, clean water, a modern and reliable electricity grid, telecommunications, security infrastructure, and other pressing domestic infrastructure needs. * Refocus government spending on American infrastructure and away from the Obama-Clinton globalization agenda. * Provide maximum flexibility to the states. * Create thousands of new jobs in construction, steel manufacturing, and other sectors to build the transportation, water, telecommunications and energy infrastructure needed to enable new economic development in the U.S., all of which will generate new tax revenues. * Put American steel made by American workers into the backbone of America’s infrastructure. * Leverage new revenues and work with financing authorities, public-private partnerships, and other prudent funding opportunities. * Harness market forces to help attract new private infrastructure investments through a deficit-neutral system of infrastructure tax credits. * Implement a bold, visionary plan for a cost-effective system of roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, railroads, ports and waterways, and pipelines in the proud tradition of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who championed the interstate highway system. * Link increases in spending to reforms that streamline permitting and approvals, improve the project delivery system, and cut wasteful spending on boondoggles. * Employ incentive-based contracting to ensure projects are on time and on budget. * Approve private sector energy infrastructure projects—including pipelines and coal export facilities—to better connect American coal and shale energy production with markets and consumers. * Work with Congress to modernize our airports and air traffic control systems, end long wait times, and reform the FAA and TSA, while also ensuring that American travelers are safe from terrorism and other threats. * Incorporate new technologies and innovations into our national transportation system such as state-of-the-art pipelines, advancements in maritime commerce, and the next generation of vehicles. * Make clean water a high priority. Develop a long-term water infrastructure plan with city, state and federal leaders to upgrade aging water systems. Triple funding for state revolving loan fund programs to help states and local governments upgrade critical drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. * Link increased investments with positive reforms to infrastructure programs that reduce waste and cut costs. Complete projects faster and at lower cost through significant regulatory reform and ending needless red-tape. KEY ISSUES * Infrastructure investment strengthens our economic platform, makes America more competitive, creates millions of jobs, increases wages for American workers, and reduces the costs of goods and services for American consumers. * America’s infrastructure is a linchpin of private sector growth but, today, much of our infrastructure is crumbling. * More than 60,000 bridges are considered “structurally deficient.” Traffic delays cost the U.S. economy more than $50 billion annually. Most major roads are rated as “less than good condition.” * Aninvestigation this year by USA Today “identified almost 2,000 additional water systems spanning all 50 states where testing has shown excessive levels of lead contamination over the past four years.” This included 350 systems that supplied drinking water to schools or day care facilities. * According to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), without major improvements to our transportation systems, “the United States will lose more than 2.5 million jobs by 2025” (NAM, Build To Win, 2016). NAM estimates a “ten-year funding gap” of approximately $1 trillion. The Trump Infrastructure Plan is aimed at achieving a target of investment to fill this gap. NAM also found that $8 billion in infrastructure tax credits would support $226 billion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. Innovative financing programs also provide a 10-to-1 return on investment. * Under the failing Obama-Clinton policies, infrastructure projects across the U.S. are routinely delayed for years and years due to endless studies, layer-upon-layer of red-tape, bureaucracy, and lawsuits—with virtually no end in sight. This increases costs on taxpayers and blocks Americans from obtaining the kind of infrastructure that is needed for them to compete economically. * According to the Wall Street Journal, “more than a dozen infrastructure projects, worth about $33 billion, have been either rejected by regulators or withdrawn by developers since 2012, with billions more tied up in projects still in regulatory limbo.” This includes coal and shale energy export facilities. Major pipelines are being blocked as well. As noted in the Wall Street Journal, blocking such projects “leaves some communities without access to lower-cost fuel and higher-paying jobs.” CONTRAST WITH HILLARY CLINTON * Hillary Clinton supported NAFTA, supported China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, and allowed China to run up $1 trillion in cumulative trade deficits with the United States as Secretary of State. When she sent American jobs overseas, she also sent our tax base that supports our infrastructure. She rebuilt foreign countries, while America’s infrastructure crumbled. * With Hillary Clinton’s full support, the Obama Administration spent more than $840 billion in taxpayer dollars on the “stimulus” program, which they dishonestly sold to the American people on the basis that the money would go to “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects. Yet, only 1% of the stimulus was invested in our nation’s drinking water systems. Less than 5% overall actually went toward America’s infrastructure. Billions were wasted on giveaways to their political friends and cronies. * Hillary Clinton proposes a massive $275 billion tax increase on American businesses to help fund an “infrastructure bank” that is controlled by politicians and bureaucrats in Washington DC. * Her tax hikes will drive more businesses and jobs out of America, further hollowing out our industrial and manufacturing base. * Since Hillary Clinton will do nothing meaningful to fix the broken permitting and regulatory bureaucracy, very little real progress or improvements to our nation’s infrastructure will ever take place. Hillary Clinton will also continue to block major infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL pipeline. * Hillary Clinton supports "open trade and open borders" which places America's transportation systems, financial systems, and economic systems at grave risk. Cybersecurity * Order an immediate review of all U.S. cyber defenses and vulnerabilities, including critical infrastructure, by a Cyber Review Team of individuals from the military, law enforcement, and the private sector. ** The Cyber Review Team will provide specific recommendations for safeguarding different entities with the best defense technologies tailored to the likely threats, and will followed up regularly at various Federal agencies and departments. ** The Cyber Review Team will establish detailed protocols and mandatory cyber awareness training for all government employees while remaining current on evolving methods of cyber-attack. * Instruct the U.S. Department of Justice to create Joint Task Forces throughout the U.S. to coordinate Federal, State, and local law enforcement responses to cyber threats. * Order the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to provide recommendations for enhancing U.S. Cyber Command, with a focus on both offense and defense in the cyber domain. * Develop the offensive cyber capabilities we need to deter attacks by both state and non-state actors and, if necessary, to respond appropriately. Read Mr. Trump's Remarks at an event with the Retired American Warriors. KEY ISSUES * Attacks against U.S. government and private sector systems by state and non-state actors are growing. Huffington Post, May 24, 2016 * Hackers obtained 20 million identities of individuals who underwent Federal background checks. Washington Post, July 9, 2015 * J.P. Morgan Chase had the information of 76 million households compromised. New York Times, Oct. 2, 2014 * E-Bay was hacked and lost 150 million customer passwords. May 22, 2014 * Target was hacked and lost 40 million customer credit card numbers. Dec. 19, 2013 CONTRAST WITH HILLARY CLINTON * Hillary Clinton placed U.S. secrets at risk by using an unsecured email system to send and receive classified emails. March 11, 2015 * Hillary Clinton used a Blackberry on the territory of “sophisticated adversaries” - contrary to best practices - and put her communications with the President and others at risk. July 5, 2016 * Hillary Clinton claimed to not understand that “C” means “Confidential” on sensitive documents. Hill, Sept. 2, 2016 * Hillary Clinton and her staff destroyed and bleached 33,000 emails rather than turn them over to the FBI. Veteran's Affairs * Ensure our veterans get the care they need wherever and whenever they need it. No more long drives. No more waiting backlogs. No more excessive red tape. Just the care and support they earned with their service to our country. * Support the whole veteran, not just their physical health care, but also by addressing their invisible wounds, investing in our service members' post-active duty success, transforming the VA to meet the needs of 21st century service members, and better meeting the needs of our female veterans. * Make the VA great again by firing the corrupt and incompetent VA executives who let our veterans down, by modernizing the VA, and by empowering the doctors and nurses to ensure our veterans receive the best care available in a timely manner. Donald J. Trump's 10 Point Plan to Reform The Department of Veterans Affairs 1. Appoint a VA Secretary whose sole purpose will be to serve veterans. Under a Trump Administration, the needs of D.C. bureaucrats will no longer be placed above those of our veterans. 2. Use the powers of the presidency to remove and discipline the federal employees and managers who have violated the public's trust and failed to carry out the duties on behalf of our veterans. 3. Ask that Congress pass legislation that empowers the Secretary of the VA to discipline or terminate any employee who has jeopardized the health, safety or well-being of a veteran. 4. Create a commission to investigate all the fraud, cover-ups, and wrong-doing that has taken place in the VA, and present these findings to Congress to spur legislative reform. 5. Protect and promote honest employees at the VA who highlight wrongdoing, and guarantee their jobs will be protected. 6. Create a private White House hotline, which will be active 24 hours a day answered by a real person. It will be devoted to answering veteran's complaints of wrongdoing at the VA and ensure no complaints fall through the cracks. 7. Stop giving bonuses to any VA employees who are wasting money, and start rewarding employees who seek to improve the VA's service, cut waste, and save lives. 8. Reform the visa system to ensure veterans are at the front of the line for health services, not the back. 9. Increase the number of mental health care professionals, and allow veteran's to be able to seek mental health care outside of the VA. 10. Ensure every veteran has the choice to seek care at the VA or at a private service provider of their own choice. Under a Trump Administration, no veteran will die waiting for service. Read More on Donald J. Trump’s 10 Point Plan to Reform The Department of Veterans Affairs, here. Read Mr. Trump's Remarks in Virginia Beach, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention, and to the American Legion. KEY ISSUES * IG Report: 300,000 Vets Died While Waiting For Health Care At VA. News, Sept. 3, 2015 * Wait Lists Grow as Many More Veterans Seek Care and Funding Falls Far Short. New York Times, June 20, 2015 * Hundreds Of Appointment Wait Times Manipulated At Texas VA Facilities. Press, June 21, 2016 * A Fatal Wait: Veterans Languish And Die On A VA Hospital's Secret List. April 23, 2014 * Report Finds Sharp Increase In Veterans Denied V.A. Benefits. New York Times, March 20, 2016 * Veterans Affairs Improperly Spent $6 Billion Annually, Senior Official Says. Washington Post, May 14, 2015 * U.S. Veterans Commit Suicide At Rate Of 20 A Day, VA Says. Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2016 * White House Review Of Veterans Administration Finds 'Corrosive Culture.' June 27, 2014 * Few People Lost Jobs With V.A. in Scandal. New York Times, April 22, 2015 * Veterans Affairs Pays $142 Million In Bonuses Amid Scandals. Today, May 22, 2014 * VA Hasn't Fixed Wait-time Problems, GAO Finds. Today, April 18, 2016 CONTRAST WITH HILLARY CLINTON * Hillary Clinton Praised the Obama Administration for Its Handling of the VA Scandal. J. Trump Press Release, Sept. 7, 2016 * Hillary Clinton Offensively Downplayed VA’s Problems. J. Trump Press Release, Sept. 7, 2016 * Hillary Clinton Refused to Apologize for Insulting Our Veterans Through Her Defense of the Corrupt VA. Wall Street Journal, Oct. 28, 2015 * The Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Recently Said Hillary Clinton Would Abandon VA Reforms. Times, July 20, 2016